My kids usually sleep with a box fan running to mute outside noise. Yesterday, one of our two fans mysteriously kamikazed a blade. Now when it's switched on, it walks (er, hops) across the room-- loudly.
We're at the tail end of a humidity streak which has blanketed our area with 90+ degree weather for two weeks. Really, we shouldn't have been shocked when our trusty Walmart was sold out of box fans.
So last night, we made the only logical decision. All three of our kids would sleep together in one room. Our room.
Shortly after being tucked in, the oldest came to us, complaining that her 2-year-old sister was babbling on and on, and that "I can't understand anything she's saying." We assured her that this was normal behavior and sent her back to bed.
By the time we got to bed ourselves, one of them had already had "an accident" in his resting place on the floor. So we cleaned him up, laid down a towel, and went to sleep.
Little did we know that those first few hours would be our only hours of rest.
The 2-year-old was awake from roughly 3:30-5:30, playing quietly on her own. During that time, our oldest came to me to complain about her nose hurting (for which I know no remedy) and again later because she had pain in her back (which I'm sure had something to do with sleeping on a concrete basement floor-- just a hunch).
Around six o'clock or so, my son accidentally moved (and unplugged) the beloved, precious, sleep-protecting box fan. Faster than a cat out of water, I shot from my bed to fix it and salvage the rest of my girls' potential sleep. But that was pretty much it.
To frost the cake, I was up three times, myself, to use the restroom (sometimes being a hydrated runner has it's downsides).
It wasn't until the kids were up and Rodney was in the shower that either of us thought to wish a groggy "happy anniversary" to the other.
I thought back to our wedding day. About how his pesky little brothers ran over to wake my maid of honor and myself up at the crack of 7 a.m. and how I wanted to gouge their eyes out for doing so.
Today, 7 a.m. is sleeping in! Boy, how our lives have been taken down a completely (and I do mean completely) different road. We are no longer the kids who exchanged vows on our wedding day. Our perspective has grown, and our life experience has gained value one hundred fold. Our lives are rich and full and significantly less self-focused.
It seems fitting, in a "God has a sense of humor" sort of way that our night went so horrendously. It is a reminder of where we have come in just over a decade. We almost didn't make it to year 2, and here we stand at 11. For that, my hat goes off to God-- the great sustainer.
We've known each other now for a majority of our lives. And my favorite part is that this is still just the beginning.
